Silence
by inversereality
Summary: After living alone all of his life, Minnow is cast out into the ocean by a great storm. Will he be able to get to shore and start a new life? Or will he forget his past, his name, and die silenced?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey all! For those of you who have read Playing StarClan, this is the first fan fiction I ever wrote and finished, and it's two or more years old. So, um, don't expect it to be like Playing StarClan, haha. Anyway, I'm posting this because I am currently writing the sequel to this, _Harmony_, and since I'm sure I'll post that eventually, I thought you guys would want to read the first story. So, enjoy! Also, the prologue kind of sucks, so don't be deterred by that. Please. xD**

* * *

**summary**

Minnow has lived alone on an island all his life... until a great storm comes and launches him into the sea. Waking up on a sliver of charred wood in the middle of the ocean, he must figure out how to survive until he can find land. Will he be able to get to the shore and start a new life? Or will he forget his past, his name, and die silenced?

**prologue**

They had no warning.

The ship lurched forward with a groan, and the sleeping ones hit the floor. The ones on deck fell, and the water washed up over the sides, swirling around their feet. The walls burst with the force of the ocean. Screams pierced the once-still night air.

Moon rolled off the box she had been sleeping on. Water sloshed up over her muzzle as she sank to the floor. Her eyes opened wide as she realized what was going on and her paws swiped through the water, pushing her back towards the surface.

Jerking forward, the ship let out another groan. Moon was slammed up against a shard of broken wall, and the water turned pink. She was pulled out of the ship through the hole in the wall and thrust deep into the dark ocean water. Her paws pedaled vigorously, but she was too far under to make it. Her paws moved more feebly as black crept around the edges of her vision.

_Great StarClan, take my life if you wish, but please don't kill the kits._

And she was gone.


	2. (The Actual) Chapter 1

Water rippled around my paws as I dragged the fish out of the ocean. I pulled it up to the shade of the trees and sat down, laying my head on my paws and staring out over the ocean. The blue-green water stretched out in every direction as far as I could see.

This island is all I've ever known. I was born here, raised here, and I've never known anything else.

As far as I know, I'm the only cat left in the world.

Of course, Moon, my mother, told me about other cats – ones who lived in huge groups called _Clans_, and worked together to feed and take care of the others.

I could never really tell when Moon was telling me a story or about past experiences.

I chewed my fish thoughtfully. Little food was available on the island. A few mice, maybe, and the odd squirrel, but mostly I had to swim a little ways into the water and catch a fish with a perfectly timed swipe of unsheathed claws.

Living alone on the island had never been a problem for me. Instead, having no one to talk to gave me a sense of peace and tranquility, a sense I was sure I could find no where else. I couldn't imagine meeting another cat – I would probably seem a little, if not very, antisocial, but talking wasn't one of my strongest points. The only talking I had ever done was back when I was a kit and Moon told me stories, but ever since the tree fell on her during that storm… well, I haven't said a word.

After I finished the fish, I turned to head up into the heart of the island, where his cave was situated pleasantly against the side of a hill and right next to the freshwater creek that crept around the wooded hills. I maneuvered between trees and over huge boulders that had been there since before I was born until I made it to my cave, pushing through the sheets of lichen and moss that covered the entrance.

When I slept that night, my dreams were filled with fighting cats, surging masses lunging for each others throats. I writhed and twisted all night until blood bathed my paws. When I jerked awake, my heart pounding, I had one thing on my mind: There couldn't be anything worse.

If I only knew.


	3. Chapter 2

Sunlight filtered through the cracks in the cave entrance, highlighting the silver and white on my paws. I parted my jaws in an enormous yawn, standing up and arching my back in a stretch, before I shouldered my way through the lichen to take a drink from the creek.

The cool water filled my paws with energy, and I raced through the trees, over the hills, and back to the shore, bouncing over the hot sand until I got to the water. I pushed out from the sand and swam far enough away that my back paws barely reached the ground beneath me, and I waited, claws poised above my head.

I remembered when Moon first taught me how to swim. I was small, only a few moons old, when she had brought me to the water. At first I hadn't wanted to try, but once she showed me how easy and fun it was, I barely needed teaching. It had come naturally.

She had been swimming with me the day she died.

_"Minnow! Wake up! I've got to catch food before the storm comes. Do you want to swim with me?"_

Minnow opened his eyes. "Of course!" He bounced out of the cave, following Moon's white tail. A huge rock was between him and Moon, and so he leapt up, slamming against the boulder, his claws scrabbling on the smooth surface. He slipped sideways and fell into the stream. "Ahhh!"

Moon whipped around. "Minnow," she said, stifling laughter. She grasped her kit by the scruff and put him down on a flat slab of stone on the bank. Minnow could see the amusement in her eyes and turned away.

"It was sooo cold," he shivered.

Moon cleaned his pelt until he stopped shivering, before she turned and started for the beach again.

By the time they got there, clouds had completely covered the sky. The waves were rippling in faster than usual. "We better hurry," Moon told him. "Or we won't be able to eat until it's over."

The first lightning bolt struck before they had even gotten far enough out to catch anything. The sand erupted on the far side of the beach. Moon stopped, looking back at the beach with a look of alarm.

"What is it, Moon?" Minnow asked, stopping behind her.

"The storm," she whispered.

As if on cue, the clouds opened up and the rain came down in sheets, stinging Minnow's eyes. "Mother, it hurts!" he complained.

Without replying, Moon grasped Minnow's scruff with her teeth and bolted up the shore, bursting into the trees, her eyes wide and her heart pounding so hard Minnow could feel it through her thick fur.

"Mother? It's just a storm. Why are we running?"

Minnow heard the groan before Moon did. Just ahead of them, a thick-trunked tree swayed precariously, creaking and moaning as it did so. A piece of bark snapped, the first sign of it falling.

"Mother! Mother, that tree!"

Minnow felt his mother take in a deep breath, and then he was thrown across the leaves.

"Run, Minnow. Run as fast as you can, and remember that I love you."

And so Minnow ran, hard, his paws pounding against the slick ground, slipping on wet leaves, and didn't look back – something he would regret for the rest of his life.

There was a deafening boom as the tree fell. The ground vibrated, and Minnow hit the ground as leaves flew everywhere, blocking out the tiniest sliver of light that swam down through the trees.

When the forest was once again silent, save the pounding of the rain, Minnow stood, plastered in leaves and dirt, and retraced his steps back to the tree.

"Moon! Did you see that?" he called out. "Did you get to see the tree fall?"  
There was no reply.

He took a few steps along the truck. "Moon?"

That was when he saw the white. A tiny tuft of white fur, sticking out from beneath the tree.

"No," Minnow whispered. "She had to have gotten her fur stuck in some of it," he reasoned. "She's not under there – she's too fast."

He dug his claws into the wood and launched himself over to the other side, landing in a puddle of cold mud. He turned to the tree.

There, a delicate white paw, covered in mud, lay cold and unmoving.

That was the last time I ever spoke.


	4. Chapter 3

The air was chilly by the time I made it back to my cave. I could smell rain on the wind, and the thinnest stretch of clouds showed up on the horizon, almost invisible. A storm was coming; I could tell by the speed of the wind and the humidity.

I pushed into my den – I didn't want to be caught in the storm; I hated the cold – and curled up on the farthest end of the cave. I nudged the bed of moss I had created, stretching it with my claws and rearranging the pieces for maximum comfort. When the moss was in the position I wanted it, I leaned back and waited for the storm, not tired enough to sleep, but not awake enough to stock up on prey.

After a while, my paws went numb and my muscles ached. I stood up to stretch and peeked outside to check the progress of the storm.

It had hardly moved. This wasn't good. As slow as the clouds were moving now, the storm would hang around the island for longer than usual.

The chilly breeze rose up again, sending shivers down my spine. I crawled back into the cave and tucked my nose under a paw, trying to warm back up, and for a fleeting moment I wished I had someone to talk to, someone to curl up with and warm each other up. The thought lasted only a second though, and I realized how nice it was to not have to take care of or worry over anyone, and how much I would dislike it if I lived in one of the _Clans_ Moon spoke up.

Vaguely, I remembered a story she had once told me, one from a vast land far away from the island.

_A long time ago,_ she would say, _there was a young, white she-cat, only a few moons older than yourself, who lived underneath the roots of a tree._ It had never occurred to me, until now, that the cat could have been Moon, for I could never imagine Moon as a little cat. _Her mother had told her stories of a group of cats who lived by the ocean – MistClan it was called – and the white she-cat wanted to meet them._

There were a few cats that the white she-cat knew and had spoken to, all of which had told her that the father she had never met lived in MistClan, and she was more determined than ever to find this so-called Clan.

So a few days later, she snuck out from under the tree while her mother was sleeping, and headed in the direction that that the cats had pointed her in.

To get to MistClan, she had to travel for three days across fields, over hills, and through forests, until finally she crested the ledge that overlooked the beach.

Sure enough, more cats than the she-cat had seen in her life milled lazily around the beach, basking up rays of sun, sharing prey, or cleaning each others pelts.

Then she saw him. A pure white tom, well-muscled and thick-furred, sat on a rock, his dark blue eyes traveling over every cat in the Clan. He looked up at the ledge, checking for intruders, and she ducked, but it was too late – he had seen her.

He raised the alarm, a wild screech, unlike anything she had ever heard before, and just as the Clan leapt to their paws, she bolted.

She wasn't fast enough. Claws dug into her pelt, yanking her backwards and knocking her to the ground. She looked up at her attacker, knowing that the last thing she would ever see was a clawed paw poised above her, ready to strike.

"Stop!" the white tom cried, staring down at her. Her attacker froze, then stepped back, apologizing. The white tom's eyes searched hers, as if he knew something she didn't.

Then he turned. "Follow me," he told her, bounding down the ledge and into the sand. "Now sit here and wait," he said, disappearing into a cave on the side of the ledge.

The she-cat could hear him negotiating with another cat, one she couldn't see, until after a while, both cats stepped out. The white tom was accompanied by a muscular ginger tabby tom with amber eyes, his head held high.

The tom was Shellstar, the leader of the Clan, and he accepted her as one of them, giving her an apprentice name and assigning her a warrior to train her. She learned the ways of the Clan fast, and having already learned to hunt back with her mother, her training was soon over. Over time, she grew close to another apprentice, a silver tabby tom with sparkling green eyes, and soon after her warrior ceremony, she moved into the nursery.

Until the day she saw the white flag.

She had just woken up, and was looking for some prey to eat, when she saw the sliver of white down the beach.

The sliver was too oddly shaped to be a cloud; it was all sharp edges and angles. She was curious as to what it was, and she padded in the direction of the strange object.

It turned out to be the mast on what the Clan cats called a boat. She clawed her way up the side, wanting to know what kind of things one could find on a boat.  
After a while, she got tired, and took a nap behind a chair.

When she awoke later that day, the boat had taken off, and she was in the middle of the ocean.

Moon had told me this story to keep me from exploring things I shouldn't, or so she said, but I was staring to see that this was a story about her life before she got to the island.

Suddenly, I found that I really wanted to meet my father.


	5. Chapter 4

The trees swayed precariously above where I was standing. The first raindrop hit me on the nose, cold and wet. A shiver clawed up my spine, and a tree groaned behind me, it's waving becoming more and more violently. It struck me that I would be safer on the beach, where no trees could fall on me.

I sprinted down to the edge of the forest and leapt for the sand – instead, my paws landed in freezing water, splashing over me and soaking my pelt. I took a step back onto the grass and surveyed the now-flooded beach.

Glancing back at the forest, I debated whether it would better to sit in the water or stay under the trees. I wouldn't get hit with a tree in the water, but I wouldn't be cold in the cover of the forest.

I resolved to race back to my cave, where I wouldn't get hit by a tree or get cold, but I never made it.

Before I reached my cave, the now-dark sky lit up with lightning and a monstrous crack echoed through the forest at the same moment that a tree burst into flames. It wailed as it leaned toward me, and the next crack was the wood cracking as the flaming tree fell.

I leapt forward, desperate to get out of the way, but my tail erupted in pain and I was yanked backwards, against stone. A crevice between two rocks had captured my tail and no matter how hard I pushed, the rocks wouldn't budge.

A shriek tore from my throat as a burning branch alnded next to me, sending sparks flying onto my pelt. I dug into the dirt around the rocks and gave it a final shove with my back paws.

My tail came free just as the tree landed, just to the side of me and sending me flying.

I landed beyond my cave and kept running, blind with fear, until another scorching tree snapped. I lunged forward, my claws lodging into a half-dead pine tree on the edge of the cliff.

From this vantage point, I could see the entire island.

The entire beach was flooded, and by now the water had even risen into the grass. The water splashed over the edge of the cliff where it had once been way below it. Most of the forest was on fire, trees were falling everwhere.

I screeched in agony. What was happening to my home? Why, why, why?

Suddenly, my claws were dislodged from the tree, and it swung forward, my back paws slipping out from under me and dangling over the cliff, where the tree hung horizontally and was still falling. My heart pounded as the water kept rising and the tree kept falling and I knew I was going to find out where Moon went when she died.

A massive wave slammed into the tree, and I was thrown into the water.


	6. Chapter 5

I jerked awake and retracted my claws from whatever they had been gripping, promptly falling into the water, paws flailing. The water tossed me back and forth, shoving me deeper and flipping me upside down while I struggled to get my head above the water.

Suddenly I was thrown upward, out of the water and straight up into the air my back riding on the crest of a wave, and then I hit the surface with a slap.

Seeing a thin slab of wood floating on the water, I dove for it, claws outstretched before the water could push me under again.

My claws met wet wood as I gripped the slab. I choked up cold water, dragging myself onto the board and collapsing. My chest heaved and I stared up at the gray sky.

Wait. What was I doing here?

I sat straight up and scrutinized my surroundings – or surrounding. Water. Cold, blue, and empty. No land in sight, no cats, no trees, no prey.

No home.

I desperately grasped the wood as another wave sent it flying, and I landed upside down, the board over my head and my body submerged in freezing ocean-water.

Letting go, I swam out from under it and leapt back onto the board – the only comfort I had now.  
What could I do? Slowly, the realization that I was going to die soon crept over me, and I took it in with a detatched acceptance, knowing that it was nothing that could be stopped.

Without food or clean water, there was no way I could survive.

The board flew up as the water surged up from beneath us, sending my back paws soaring over the wood and into the water.

I didn't try to get back on this time. After half-heartedly making sure that my claws were lodged securely into the wood, I let my muscles relax, my mind clear, and my eyes close. Water lapped visciously at my back, but I didn't notice. Cold, unforgiving sleep washed over me as I nestled my shivering nose against the wood.

What else was I supposed to do?

* * *

When my eyes opened for the second time, the sky was still gray. The water was calm and smooth, only the slightest ripples rocking the slab of wood. I slid myself up over the edge, gently laying down in the very center and I reassessed my surroundings.

Water.

My stomach growled violently, possibly the worse thing that could happen to me at the moment. I kept my eyes on the water, hoping I could spot a fish – any fish – swimming around near the surface, but there was none. Nothing that even vaguely appeared edible.

I flexed my claws and racked my brain for any possible solution. It was while realizing that I was going to die of starvation, one of the most painful deaths I could think of, that the bird alighted on the edge of the wood.

I froze. Not even a whisker moved. The bird was just a few whisker-lengths away, staring out over the water, its dark, beady eyes twitching in every direction. After a several moments of careful contemplation, my muscles began to ache in vague anticipation. This was most likely the only chance I had to catch any prey, and I didn't want to blow it.

Very slowly, I lifted my hindquarters and bunched my muscles, preparing for a lunge that basically equaled life or death, and pounced.

The leap between where I had been and where I planned to be seemed to last ages. Everything unfolded in slow motion, whole thoughts forming in the space of time. The bird's terrified squawk came out muffled, it's wings gradually unfurling as it attempted to escape, it's tiny claws just barely lifting from the wood.

But my claws sank into the thick feathers, and the prey was mine.

* * *

******A/N: Hello! It's been a few days since I updated, and it will be another few until I update again! I'm going camping, starting today and ending on Wednesday morning, so my next update won't be until then. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the wait!**


	7. Chapter 6

When I first saw the smudge of brown against the horizon, I thought nothing of it. A hallucination, from lack of food, or perhaps another slab of wood from the storm. I stared indifferently into the water, watching the ripples from the wood bounce along the surface of the water. Gentle waves rocked the slab back and forth, and my eyes closed again. Why not? I had nothing else to do.

I had been drifting in and out of sleep for days, a whole season, it seemed, without seeing another trace of anything edible. Grudgingly, I had drank several gulps of the nasty salt water every time I woke up, and it helped curb my hunger – and keep me alive – for a short while, at least.

Thoughts barely formed any longer, my mind an empty void, black as the night sky. Sleep was my only escape, and something I did the vast majority of the time. A few times my home crossed my mind, but it was fleeting, gone before it came. Several times, I thought I saw birds landing before my nose, yet every time I swiped at them, they would vanish upon touch, like a wisp of smoke, and I soon realized I was imagining it. A mirage derived from my quickly approaching insanity.

Still, when I saw the fish below the surface of the water, I dove in anyway. Imagine my surprise when my claws actually connected with scales, and narrow, slippery bodies swarmed against my fur. My jaws opened in astonishment, and I nearly choked on the water that surged into my mouth. Gripping the fish tightly in my teeth, I pushed myself back onto the wood and indulged myself in a pleasure it had been so long since I had enjoyed, and rocked back on my haunches, content – well, as much as you can be, in the middle of the ocean.

I let my eyes drift close, though I wasn't quite ready to fall asleep yet – which was unusual for me, given the situation. Instead, I listened to the sound of the water lapping against the wood, it's lull comforting me more than it previously had been.

Suddenly, my bliss was interrupted by a sound I'd never heard before, something that resembled the chirping of the birds and the chattering of the squirrels. I lifted my head, and jerked up in surprise. A great brown thing was headed straight for me, waves rocking out from it's sides. Tall, narrow creatures on two legs, with fur-less, flat faces perched atop it, gesturing widely to each other and making high pitched noises.

Panicked, I dangled my back legs off the slab of wood and tried to paddle out of the way, but I was too slow. The brown thing came nearer and nearer, the waves bouncing me up and down, up and down. Water splashed over the wood and into my nose and mouth, blinding me, and with a hollow thump, it crashed into the wood and I went flying through the air for a second time.

My claws connected with the side of the brown thing. My heart was bouncing around my chest like a squirrel with rabies, and I was shaking so hard I thought I would fall off. I gripped the side with the claws of all four paws, holding on for dear life. After a while, my legs began to ache and my neck cramped up, and I knew I couldn't stay there forever. I was going to have to drop off the side and into the water, or climb up and over the edge.

I chose the latter. Carefully, I retracted my claws one by one and placed them above me. Water streamed off my pelt and hit the water. The wind blew through my fur, chilling my soaked skin and causing me to stop and shiver, balling myself up the best I could against the side of a monstrous thing I'd never seen before. Finally, the wind dried up most of the water, and I resumed climbing, beginning to wonder if I was going to make it to the top – it took every bit of effort just to take the next step, and the edge was still a long ways away.

Stopping for yet another period of rest, I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the cool brown surface of the side of the strange thing. I shifted my claws, and at once realized it was made of wood, like the slab I had been sleeping on. For a moment, while my eyes were closed, it felt like I was back on my island, climbing trees and hunting squirrels.

But then I opened my eyes again, ready to continue climbing, and it was all lost.

At last, I reached the top, panting heavily, and rested my head on the edge. The loud creatures were at the front, their backs to me, and after a moment, I dragged myself up over the side and collapsed. My breath couldn't keep up with my racing heart, and all I wanted at that moment was to sleep. A long, deep, everlasting sleep.

I knew I couldn't, however, and I pushed myself to my paws with a groan. My legs shook precariously, and for a second I thought I was going to go soaring back over the edge and into the water. The brown thing lurched forward, and I was launched into a long, tall thing that vaguely resembled a tree trunk. I peered up the length of it, and saw a large, white thing stretching across the sky, like a cloud.

The white flag. The boat. The humans.

It all came back to me. The story Moon had told me when I was young came flooding into my mind. This was what had stranded her on the island, what had taken her away from her family and friends and Clan.

And ultimately, what had lead her to her death.

All at once, I was afraid. I wanted to get off. I wanted to run, I wanted to hide. Who knew what kinds of thing the boat could do to me – where it could take me, where it could crash.

I stepped back, my ears laid flat against my head and the fur on my neck bristling.

"Hi there! Who are you? I don't recall ever seeing you around here."

I jumped. A voice. I must be going crazy. It was like Moon's, only deeper and more rough and older, somehow.

"Hello?"

Turning towards the voice, I took a deep breath. Standing just behind me was another cat, – another cat! – one with a thick striped pelt, like my own, only dark and brown. He was much bigger than me, as muscled as I was lithe, with piercing blue eyes and a small scar on his muzzle. "Aren't you going to tell me your name?" He rocked back onto his haunches, the curiosity in his eyes morphing into confusion.

This was it. I was going to talk to another cat for the first time in as many seasons as I could remember. I was going to learn how to socialize, how other cats lived, and that I wasn't the only cat left, that I wasn't alone in this world. Perhaps, even find out how to get home. I opened my mouth.

No words came out.

Blinking and twitching my ears, I tried again. Nothing. The cat tilted his head, gesturing with his tail for me to speak. Again, I attempted to talk, but there was only silence.

It was then that I realized, it wasn't simply that I had forgotten how to speak.

I had forgotten my own name.


	8. Chapter 7

His head cocked to one side, the cat stared at me. I cleared my throat and looked away, swallowing.

"You're a mute," the cat decided. I looked back at him, my ears twitching in confusion, but he didn't notice. "Well, I'm Bengal. I can show you around if you'd like."

I had nothing else to do. Nodding, I followed the tabby tom as he led me around different objects, pointing them out and labeling the for me as we passed them: barrels, nets, ropes, stairs, doors.

As we explored the surface of the boat, I dug through my mind for any remnants of my name. A letter, a sound, anything. I searched my memories, one with Moon calling out my name, but I couldn't find one. They had vanished in the days I'd spent on the water, slipped from my mind as I worried about how and what I'd next eat.

Finally, Bengal stopped in front of a slab of meat that had been tossed to the floor, talking about how skinny I was. Delicious smells came spiraling out from the door that hung slightly ajar in front of us. I could hear something moving around on the other side of it.

I immediately plunged my muzzle into the meat, with Bengal's beside mine. Within minutes, I had finished off my portion of the slab, but the meat had barely filled me up. The scents coming in from behind the door swirled around my nose, and I edged toward it, my nose lifted. I had just reached out with my paw to pull the door back when Bengal looked up sharply, calling, "No, you can't go in there! That's for the humans only."

My ears flicked in his direction, but I ignored him, slipping around the door. I crept along the wall and crouched defensively every time a shadow flew over me. Several humans were padding around what appeared to be a large den with tall, straight walls and strange outcroppings with flat tops. They tossed things around and shouted to each other, shiny silver things clanging together with a horrid, high-pitched ring that made me cringe.

I could smell something that smelled vaguely like meat and a lot like smoke and wood, edged with something that smelled similar to fat and one of the plants that grew on the island. It made my mouth water, and I knew that I was going to get it, no matter what.

Slinking around the edge of one of the outcroppings, I peered up at the surface and determined how far I would have to jump to reach it. I rocked back onto my haunches and bunched my muscles in preparation.

Then I leapt upward, my claws scrabbling on the slick surface as I reached the top, and heaved the rest of my body over the corner at the precise moment that one of the humans screeched and pointed at me. His hairless face scrunched up in anger as he motioned with a wrinkled hand toward one of the other humans, and I took that as an opportunity to bolt for the meat, my paws slipping on the strange floor. I saw my target, thick and brown, and dove for it, my teeth sinking into my prey, then raced toward the end of the outcropping.

A pointy, sparkling object slammed down in front of my, and I skidded backward, desperately avoiding the sharp ends. As I turned, another human reached out to me, only this time with its hand, and grabbed me by my scruff, its other hand reaching for the meat.

I lashed out with the claws on all four paws, and was promptly dropped back onto the outcropping, where I spun around and sprinted for the only clear space I could see. I prepared to leap again, just as three other humans blocked my path. I twisted around once more, only to see every human in the den surrounding me, various weapons ready to attack me.

Screeching sounded behind me, followed by a loud back, and I turned to see Bengal dropping something onto a black, spiral surface. Whatever the tomcat dropped immediately caught fire, the bright orange flames licking up towards the walls. The humans lunged for the fire, throwing water at it, and I just stood there, watching Bengal run toward me.

"Run!" he shouted, nudging me as he passed. "Get out of here!"

I turned, my paws sliding, and I leapt off the outcropping and onto the floor, looking back as the humans finally got the fire under control.


End file.
